KUniverse 4th wall methods¶

structure KUniverse¶

KUniverse is a special structure that allows your kerboscript programs to access some of the functions that break the “4th Wall”. It serves as a place to access object directly connected to the KSP game itself, rather than the interaction with the KSP world (vessels, planets, orbits, etc.).

Members and Methods¶
Suffix	Type	Get/Set	Description
`CANREVERT`	boolean	Get	Is any revert possible?
`CANREVERTTOLAUNCH`	boolean	Get	Is revert to launch possible?
`CANREVERTTOEDITOR`	boolean	Get	Is revert to editor possible?
`REVERTTOLAUNCH`	none	Method	Invoke revert to launch
`REVERTTOEDITOR`	none	Method	Invoke revert to editor
`REVERTTO(name)`	string	Method	Invoke revert to the named editor
`ORIGINEDITOR`	string	Get	Returns the name of this vessel’s editor, “SPH” or “VAB”.
`DEBUGLOG(message)`	none	Method	Causes a string to append to the Unity debug log file.
`DEFAULTLOADDISTANCE`	`LoadDistance`	Get	Returns the set of default load and pack distances for the game.
`ACTIVEVESEL`	`Vessel`	Get/Set	Returns the active vessel, or lets you set the active vesssel.
`FORCEACTIVE(vessel)`	n/a	Set	Lets you switch active vessels even when the game refuses to allow it.

KUniverse:CANREVERT¶

Access:	Get
Type:	boolean.

Returns true if either revert to launch or revert to editor is available. Note: either option may still be unavailable, use the specific methods below to check the exact option you are looking for.

KUniverse:CANREVERTTOLAUNCH¶

Access:	Get
Type:	boolean.

Returns true if either revert to launch is available.

KUniverse:CANREVERTTOEDITOR¶

Access:	Get
Type:	boolean.

Returns true if either revert to the editor is available. This tends to be false after reloading from a saved game where the vessel was already in existence in the saved file when you loaded the game.

KUniverse:REVERTTOLAUNCH¶

Access:	Method
Type:	None.

Initiate the KSP game’s revert to launch function. All progress so far will be lost, and the vessel will be returned to the launch pad or runway at the time it was initially launched.

KUniverse:REVERTTOEDITOR¶

Access:	Method
Type:	None.

Initiate the KSP game’s revert to editor function. The game will revert to the editor, as selected based on the vessel type.

KUniverse:REVERTTO(editor)¶

Parameters:	editor – The editor identifier
Returns:	none

Revert to the provided editor. Valid inputs are “VAB” and “SPH”.

KUniverse:ORIGINEDITOR¶

Access:	Get
Type:	string.

Returns the name of the orginating editor based on the vessel type. The value is one of:

“SPH” for things built in the space plane hangar,
“VAB” for things built in the vehicle assembly building.
“” (empty string) for cases where the vehicle cannot remember its editor (when KUniverse:CANREVERTTOEDITOR is false.)

KUniverse:DEFAULTLOADDISTANCE¶

Access:	Get
Type:	`LoadDistance`.

Get or set the default loading distances for vessels loaded in the future. Note: this setting will not affect any vessel currently in the universe for the current flight session. It will take effect the next time you enter a flight scene from the editor or tracking station, even on vessels that have already existed beforehand. The act of loading a new scene causes all the vessels in that scene to inherit these new default values, forgetting the values they may have had before.

(To affect the value on a vessel already existing in the current scene you have to use the :LOADDISTANCE suffix of the Vessel structure.)

KUniverse:ACTIVEVESSEL¶

Access:	Get/Set
Type:	`Vessel`.

Returns the active vessel object and allows you to set the active vessel. Note: KSP will not allow you to change vessels by default when the current active vessel is in the atmosphere or under acceleration. Use FORCEACTIVE under those circumstances.

KUniverse:FORCEACTIVE(vessel)¶

Parameters:	vessel – `Vessel` to switch to.
Returns:	none

Force KSP to change the active vessel to the one specified. Note: Switching the active vessel under conditions that KSP normally disallows may cause unexpected results on the initial vessel. It is possible that the vessel will be treated as if it is re-entering the atmosphere and deleted.

KUniverse:DEBUGLOG(message)¶

Parameters:	message – string message to append to the log.
Returns:	none

All Unity games (Kerbal Space Program included) have a standard “log” file where they can store a lot of verbose messages that help developers trying to debug their games. Sometimes it may be useful to make your script log a message to THAT debug file, instead of using kOS’s normal Log function to append a message to some file of your own making.

This is useful for cases where you are trying to work with a kOS developer to trace the cause of a problem and you want your script to mark the moments when it hit different parts of the program, and have those messages get embedded in the log interleaved with the game’s own diagnostic messages.

Here is an example. Say you suspected the game was throwing an error every time you tried to lock steering to up. So you experiment with this bit of code:

kuniverse:debuglog("=== Now starting test ===").
kuniverse:debuglog("--- Locking steering to up----").
lock steering to up.
kuniverse:debuglog("--- Now forcing a physics tick ----").
wait 0.001.
kuniverse:debuglog("--- Now unlocking steering again ----").
unlock steering.
wait 0.001.
kuniverse:debuglog("=== Now done with test ===").

This would cause the messages you wrote to appear in the debug log, interleaved with any error messages kOS, and any other parts of the entire Kerbal Space Program game, dump into the same log.

The location of this log varies depending on your platform. For some reason, Unity chooses a different filename convention for each OS. Consult the list below to see where it is on your platform.

Windows 32-bit: [install_dir]KSP_Dataoutput_log.txt
Windows 64-bit: [install_dir]KSP_x64_Dataoutput_log.txt (not officially supported)
Mac OS X: ~/Library/Logs/Unity/Player.log
Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Squad/”Kerbal Space Program”/Player.log

For an example of what it looks like in the log, this:

kuniverse:debuglog("this is my message").

ends up resulting in this in the KSP output log:

kOS: (KUNIVERSE:DEBUGLOG) this is my message

Examples¶

Switch to an active vessel called “vessel 2”:

SET KUNIVERSE:ACTIVEVESSEL TO VESSEL("vessel 2").

Revert to VAB, but only if allowed:

PRINT "ATTEMPTING TO REVERT TO THE Vehicle Assembly Building."
IF KUNIVERSE:CANREVERTTOEDITOR {
  IF KUNIVERSE:ORIGINEDITOR = "VAB" {
    PRINT "REVERTING TO VAB.".
    KUNIVERSE:REVERTTOEDITOR().
  } ELSE {
    PRINT "COULD REVERT, But only to space plane hanger, so I won't.".
  }
} ELSE {
  PRINT "Cannot revert to any editor.".
}